The present invention relates generally to railway inspection systems, and more particularly, to an improved railway inspection system for monitoring defects of rails on a railway in a real-time basis.
Rails are the fundamental components of a railway, and serve as the surface on which train and other rail vehicle wheels run. It is well recognized in the railway industry that rails develop defects, either during the manufacturing process or as a result of normal use and/or environmental conditions. Defects have varying levels of severity, and may include for example, transverse defects, vertical sheer or split head defects, or horizontal sheer or split head defects. While minor or moderate defects are initially less likely to cause such problems, they may develop into more severe defects over time, particularly if left unattended. Depending on the severity of the defect, it may be decided to repair or replace a respective section of track.
As such, it is typical in the industry to take measures to prevent, or at least reduce such railway problems through routine inspection and maintenance. To detect rail defects, ultrasonic testing has often been employed, wherein ultrasonic inspection devices are mounted upon rail-traversing vehicles for continuously emitting and monitoring ultrasonic signals. Throughout this process, the device gathers rail inspection data (based on the behavior of the signals) that is used to identify rail defects.
In traditional systems, a rail inspector traverses a rail on a vehicle equipped with an ultrasonic device and manually reviews live rail inspection data. Upon identifying a potential defect based on the rail inspection data, the rail inspector stops and exits the vehicle, inspects the potential defect, and then returns to the vehicle to manually mark the result of the inspection (e.g., with an indication of a defect type or an indication that the no defect was found). Thereafter, the rail inspector resumes traversing the rail and repeats the process described above. Due to the constant stopping and starting of the vehicle, this system is commonly referred to as a “stop-start” system. After the traversal is complete, a repair technician traverses the rail and makes the necessary repairs based on the rail inspector's manually marked results. While in most instances the repair technician follows behind the rail inspector, often the rail inspector's ability to identify defects exceeds the repair technician's ability to repair those defects, and therefore the rail inspector may be directed to stop identifying additional defects until the repair technician catches up. Such delay increases the risk that a defect will become more severe.
In other known, but more recent systems, the rail inspection data is stored in an electronic form on the vehicle and is sent offsite for analysis following the vehicle's traversal of the rail. As part of the offsite analysis, the rail inspection data may be compared to similar data obtained from a previous run of the same portion of the rail. Such a comparison enables an analyst to identify changes in rail conditions over time, thereby identifying portions of the rail that are deemed appropriate for further (e.g., physical) inspection and/or repair. Next, a rail inspector traverses and physically inspects the identified portions of the rail, and provides a report to the analyst, who may supplement or modify the rail condition data for use during a subsequent traversal of that portion of the rail. Thereafter, a repair technician traverses the rail again to make the necessary repairs. This process is labor intensive, given that two traversals of the track are required to determine which portions of the track require repair work. Further, the analyst's comparison of rail inspection data is complex and error prone given the difficulty required in “matching up” the appropriate portions of the rail inspection data of the previous and current traversal (i.e., such that a they both represent the same portion of the rail, thereby allowing for a proper comparison and identification of defect reoccurrences, changes, etc.).